Create Swap Space on an SD Card

Hardware

96Boards Consumer Edition board
microSD Card with 8GB or more

Insert blank microSD Card into the SD Card clot on your 96Boards, partition and mount

Software

Linaro Debian Operating system

Steps

Format microSD Card

The following command and prompt will allow you to format your microSD card, this will prepare it to be used as swap space

$ sudo gdisk /dev/mmcblk1

You will be presented with the following prompts. Use provided inputs. Where an input is not offered, simply press < Enter >

Command (? for help): o
This option deletes all partitions and creates a new protective MBR.
Proceed? (Y/N): y

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 1): <Enter>
First sector (34-123764702, default = 2048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: <Enter>
Last sector (2048-123764702, default = 123764702) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 8G
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): 8200
Changed type of partition to 'Linux swap'

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (1-128, default 2): <Enter>
First sector (34-123764702, default = 16779264) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: <Enter>
Last sector (2048-123764702, default = 123764702) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: <Enter>
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 8300): <Enter>
Command (? for help): w
Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!
Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y

Reboot and setup swap space

$ sudo reboot now
$ sudo mkfs –t ext4 /dev/mmcblk1p2
$ sudo mkswap /dev/mmcblk1p1

Edit /etc/fstab and add the following line

$ sudo vim /etc/fstab

## Add the following line
/dev/mmcblk1p1 none swap sw 0 0

## this will save and exit you out of vim
<esc>:wq

Reboot and run the following command

## Ensure swap is mounted

$ sudo reboot now
$ free